Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: Raising children is a spiritual battle we must recognize. The kids are facing liberalism in religion, humanism in education, and then they're facing hedonism in society. They're up against it. Now, if I did not know the Lord, I would be absolutely petrified to raise children in this world in which we live. But there is a way.

Guest (Male): Welcome to "Love Worth Finding," featuring profound truth simply stated by Adrian Rogers. It takes a family to raise a child, and it takes faith to make a family. The most powerful and influential people on earth are mothers and fathers of faith.

Hebrews chapter 11 lists the prophet Moses in that hall of faith. We would not read of his life if it weren't for his parents. There are four principles to learn from their indispensable faith. If you have your Bible, turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and look at verse 23 as Adrian Rogers reveals the importance of our family faith.

Adrian Rogers: We have been told that it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to raise a child. Well, I want to say in all due respect, that is not true. That is not true. It takes a family to raise a child, and it takes families to make up that village.

If you don't start with families, you're not going to have much of a village to raise anybody's child with to begin with. It takes a family to raise a child, and it takes faith to make a family. Now, that's the reason we're starting where we are.

With that in mind, I want us to read a story that you know from childhood. It's the story of Moses in the bulrushes. It's found here in Hebrews chapter 11. Let's look at it as we read the word of God.

Verse 23: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he, that is Moses, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured," Moses endured, "as seeing him who is invisible," that is Almighty God.

Now, God being my helper, I want to write four things upon your heart that will help you to be a mother of faith, a father of faith, a husband, a wife, a grandparent of faith to bring up children, to bring a family up that will have children that will glorify and honor God. Are you ready for them?

Now, first of all, principle number one. I want you to see this: faith sees every child as special. Faith sees every child as special. Notice verse 23: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child."

Some translate this, they saw he was a special child. Others, that he was a beautiful child. Others translate that he was a fitting child. They all mean basically the same thing, that they looked at little baby Moses and they saw that he was extraordinary.

Now, I want to say this. There's not a parent on earth who hasn't done exactly the same thing. They said, "That baby is a special baby." Every child is a special child. Every child is the handiwork of Almighty God, and it's not just some children, it is all children that are special to God. You have to see this by faith.

Faith sees every child as a special child, and faith sees every conflict as a spiritual conflict. Faith sees every conflict as spiritual. Now, look in verse 23 again. The Bible says by faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months. Well, why did they hide him?

Well, it's very obvious. The king had commanded that the little boy babies be killed. What this was was a conflict between the gods of Egypt and Almighty God. What this literally was was a conflict between light and dark. What this was was a spiritual conflict.

Now, you have to understand that in raising children. Folks, it takes more than wit and wisdom and nutrition and good intentions and your talents. You are in a spiritual battle when you're raising children. Did you know that? That's the reason that it takes faith. That's the reason it takes faith.

Now, without faith, they should have been afraid. I mean, they're disenfranchised, helpless slaves, little unknowns. Amram and Jochebed, they had every reason to be afraid if the battle was a physical, material battle. But faith sees every conflict as spiritual.

Now, if you don't see that, folks, I'm going to tell you you're going to strike out as parents. Those were treacherous days in which they lived, and these are treacherous days in which we live. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in the last days perilous times shall come, Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 1.

The kids are facing, friends, let me tell you, they're facing liberalism in religion. They're facing humanism in education, and then they're facing hedonism in society. In society. We live in a sex-saturated, alcohol-soaked society.

Your children are looked upon as fodder for the liquor dealers, the beer barons, and all of these. It is an incredible thing, but I have to admit that they are winning the battle. Where are the best advertisements that your kids watch? The beer advertisements. I mean, give the devil his due. They're good, aren't they? And they're winning the battle.

What do they support? Where are these commercials found? Well, they're found in sports events, the Super Bowl. They're found in college playoff games and all of this. The kids are being told to drink it, everybody drinks it.

You say, "But oh, we're going to teach them to drink in moderation." Come up close, I want to tell you something. That's the way every drinker begins. That's the way everybody begins. Nobody ever starts to drink to be a drunkard. They all begin that they're going to drink in moderation or whatever. They think it's a harmless thing.

The Japanese have a proverb: first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes the drink, and then the drink takes the man. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging. Whosoever's deceived thereby is not wise. I'll tell you what you ought to do, parents. Get the alcohol out of your house. Beverage alcohol, all of it, totally, period. Out. Out. Oh, my little alcohol? Yeah, out.

Number two, you stay up when your kids go out and be awake when they come home. It's better for you to lose your sleep than to lose your child. When that big old boy comes in, get up real close and give him a hug so you can smell his breath. That's right.

Number three, let him see that you have a home. We're going to talk about family fun, but you don't have to get drunk in order to have a good time. Let him see the joy of the Lord in your house, in your heart, in your home.

So, what I'm saying is they're facing this thing, this hedonism in society. It's the same thing. Everything in the movies, in the films, in the situational comedies. They're all based primarily upon this, the breaking of God's commandments and laughing about it. That's the danger of a situational comedy that these kids watch.

Well, you say, "Well, that's just our way we get entertained by that." Many of you are using the television as a babysitter. Now, if living next door to you, there happened to be a man and a woman who are not married and they're in the house next door, and they are cohabitating and having an illicit affair.

When you go off shopping, would you say, "Now, Johnny, I want you to get a soapbox and I want you to stand on that soapbox and look in the window and watch those people and see what they're doing. I want you to be entertained. This is the way I'm going to babysit you."

Well, you say, "Of course, I wouldn't do that." Well, you're letting them watch something like that right in the television, right in the living room. You see, these are what the kids are facing. They're facing liberalism in religion, they're facing humanism in education, they're facing hedonism in society.

They're up against it. Now, if I did not know the Lord, I would be absolutely petrified to raise children in this world in which we live. But there is a way. There is a way. Notice, the Bible says they were not afraid. Faith sees every conflict as spiritual.

If you think that you're going to outwit this world, you're wrong. You're in a spiritual battle, and therefore you have to have faith. Number three, let's go to number three. Faith sees every challenge as solvable. Faith doesn't throw in the towel. Faith is not intimidated by the sinister minister of fear.

There is a king greater than the king of Egypt, and he is the King of Kings. When you see every conflict as spiritual, then you know you have the victory because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You don't have to give in to the spirit of fear.

There are parents today who are petrified. They're throwing up their hands. They're saying, "I don't know what to do," so they do nothing. You cannot afford to be lazy. You cannot afford to be selfish, and you certainly cannot afford to be cowardly. The Bible says that they were not afraid of the king's commandment.

The apostle Paul said in the New Testament, Philippians chapter 4 verse 13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Pessimism is tragic. Be done with it. Faith sees every challenge as solvable. Now, what they did, therefore, was to put their faith into action.

The Bible says in verse 23 that Moses was hidden. You remember the story. They made a little ark of bulrushes and put little Moses in that ark and put him down there in the river Nile. Now, what impelled them to do that? I believe was God. God had spoken to them, and God said, "Do that."

You say, "How do you know God told them to do that?" Because they did it by faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I mean, they couldn't have done it by faith unless they'd been impelled by the Holy Spirit of God to do it. They just simply obeyed what God had told them to do, and the Bible says it was by faith that he was hid.

Now, listen to me very carefully, folks. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. They did something. Now, they had three options. One option could have been fatalism. They could have said, "Well, whatever will be will be. We just won't do anything." Take your garden and do nothing with it and see what happens to it. Fatalism is horrible.

They could have done fanaticism. They could have just chunked the little baby in the river and said, "Let's see how God will deliver him." That's the kind of fanaticism that some people have when they're sick, they won't go to a doctor. Or when they need food, they won't work. They just say, "Well, we're just trusting God, just trusting God." That's fanaticism.

The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him. But faith works. Faith without works is dead. They did something. And when they did all they could do, all they knew to do, they did as much as they could do, then God moved in. Now, that's the reason faith sees every challenge as solvable.

You remember what happened? The little baby there is floating in that little ark there in the bulrushes, and along comes the king of Egypt's daughter. She stops her royal entourage and goes down to the river to bathe in the Nile. Now, question. Why would the princess of Egypt be bathing in the Nile? She has her lavish baths, marble baths, perfumed soap, soft towels.

Why would she be bathing in the Nile? I don't know, except that God just told her to do it. Maybe she remembered the old swimming hole when she was a little girl. She went down there to the Nile, and then just at the right moment, the baby cried. Do you think that was a diaper pin or do you think maybe an angel pinched that little child?

The baby cried just at that moment, and her mother's instincts were raised and she picked up the little baby and loved it. There's Miriam, Moses' sister, standing off and said, "Pardon me, ma'am, but I know somebody who would be happy to take care of that little baby for you if you want to keep that little baby."

She said, "You do? Go get her." Miriam went and got her mother, Moses' mother also. Moses' mother, Jochebed, said, "Yes, I'll be happy to raise and nurse that child for you." The child is placed back now in its mother's arms with Pharaoh's protection.

Jochebed and Amram have that child to raise and to teach and to train. Oh, how wonderful it is that they put all of these things into little Moses' heart. Folks, pay attention to me now. Faith, mighty faith, sees every problem, every conflict as spiritual, and therefore it sees it as solvable because greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world.

You have to do it by faith. You see, faith sees every challenge, every challenge, every challenge as a solvable challenge. Don't ever give in to the spirit of pessimism with your children. You do all that you can do, and when you do all that you can do, God will move heaven and earth for your child.

That's what God did for these parents, these seemingly helpless parents. Don't fail to do all that you can do. Now, let's go back for just a moment before we leave this point. Remember what the Bible says over there in Proverbs chapter 22: "Train up a child in the way that he should go."

Now, it doesn't just say teach. You can teach a child, and somebody else can teach them something else. But the word "train" means to discipline for a contest. Have you ever watched a man train a hunting dog? He had a little bird on a pole, and he would put that little bird there somewhere and just drop it down. This dog would point.

He took the dog with him, training the dog. I thought, "I wonder if he has a little boy." Nothing wrong with training a dog like that. But I wonder if he spent that much time teaching his little boy. Men spend all of that time training the dogs, then they don't train the children. They tie the dog up at night and let the kids run wild. That doesn't make sense to me.

Train that child. That's what Jochebed did, that's what Amram did. They trained that little child in the way that he should go. That's what the Bible says, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. Now, here's the fourth and final thing. Are you ready for this? Faith sees every choice as significant. Faith sees every choice as significant.

Now, notice what happened in verse 24. "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach greater riches than all the riches of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing him who is invisible."

Three words I want you to look at. Verse 25: choosing. Verse 26: esteeming. Verse 27: forsaking. Now, folks, here's the value system. Here's the value system that was in little Moses. Faith sees every choice as significant. Moses had to make some choices. Your children are going to be faced today with some choices.

Let me tell you something. Do you know two things that you're going to have to teach your children? Number one, you're going to have to teach them to discriminate. "Whoa, no, no, we're not supposed to teach discrimination." Yes, you are.

And number two, you're going to have to teach them to be intolerant. "Pastor, no, that's against everything I'm told." I am telling you, my friend, that you are going to have to teach your child to discriminate and not to tolerate some things.

Now, we're told today no discrimination about anything and tolerate everything. That is not biblical, that is dangerous, that is the death knell to your child. Moses realized that he had a choice to make, and it had to be a discriminating choice.

So the Bible says there was a value established. He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the riches of Egypt. He had at his fingertips pleasure, possessions, and popularity. Over here is the reproach of Christ, and Moses had to make a choice.

Now, friend, we're free to choose, we're not free not to choose, and we're not free to choose the consequences of our choice. Because after we make a choice, the choice chooses for us. Moses made a choice because there was a value established. The word "esteemed" speaks of evaluation. He was evaluating. He had learned something about Jesus Christ.

Where did he learn it? He learned it from his mother. It's absolutely foolish to expect your children to make the right choices if they don't have the right value system. You better teach them, folks, to tolerate that which is supposed to be tolerated and to be intolerant about sin and about vice and about wickedness and about lewdness and about sex before marriage and about drunkenness and about drugs and about blasphemy.

You better teach them that those things are things that you don't tolerate. You discriminate between the good and the evil, the right and the wrong. Don't discriminate against some individual. Don't discriminate against some person. Don't discriminate against somebody because of the color of their skin. But you'd better learn to discriminate about that which is right and that which is wrong.

He esteemed, and then when he had his values, then he chose some virtues. Because then he said, "All right, here are the riches of Egypt and here's the reproach of Christ." So he has a choice now that he's going to make. He looks over here and he sees pleasures, possession, power.

Let's see. Oh, that looks so great, that looks so wonderful. The pleasures of sin. Let's see where it ends. Oh, no. No. Over here is the reproach of Christ. It looks hard, it looks difficult. Moses, look at it. Let's see where it ends. Oh boy, I like that.

You see, he saw the pleasures of the moment vs. that which is eternal and that which is real and that which counts forever and ever and ever. He said, "I'm going that way." Where did he get that? I'll tell you where he got it. Jochebed, Amram put it in his heart.

First of all, there were the values established, then there was the virtue embraced, and then there was the vice rejected. He refused. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He said no. No. I'll not go that way. Thank God for children who raise that way.

I want to read something. Let me go back up here. I was at a wedding, and on the back of their wedding ceremony program, they wrote these words. I want you parents to listen to it because of what these two kids wrote themselves. Listen to it.

"We want to thank each of you for coming to celebrate our wedding with us today. Today is much more than a wedding ceremony for us. It is a worship service. Jesus has been so good to us. First and foremost, He has saved both of us. This is where it all begins. Even the most eloquent statement of the love of Christ could not adequately describe the difference He makes in a person's life once they understand the poverty to which they are bound apart from Him.

We want you to worship with us today. His name is above all names. He is the one who is most honored today. If you're here today and have never trusted Christ for salvation, please consider the testimony He has given us. Finally, we want to tell our parents how much we love them. They have been so good to us. They listen to us, counsel us, have fun with us. They are truly a blessing. The Lord has given us direction through them, and we know that we are in His will."

I tell you, there are some parents sitting out there saying, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus." Folks, I'm telling you now, there's a battle out there and only faith will win the battle. It's by faith that they did this. I want you to pray that God will increase your faith, that God will help you to be a mother, a father of faith.

Father God, teach me as a granddaddy and as a father to be a dad of faith like Amram was. Bless our mothers and grandmothers that they might be mothers and grandmothers of faith like Jochebed. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Are you facing a spiritual battle as you pray over your children or grandchildren today? At Love Worth Finding, it's one of our great honors to come alongside you and pray with you. If you can, go to our website homepage at lwf.org/radio and scroll down to find our prayer wall. You'll see the option there to either submit a prayer request or pray for others.

This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs. So again, go to lwf.org/radio and scroll down today to find our prayer wall.

Cary Vaughn: Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a nonprofit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you.

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